thomas_was_alonefandomcom-20200214-history
Story Narrative
The story and characters are wonderfully brought to life in Thomas Was Alone by the narrative voiced by Danny Wallace. This page serves as a transcript from the game. WARNING - This page is ALL spoilers! Please stop reading if you don't wish to know the entire plot of the game. Scenario 0 - Spawn 0.1 : Thomas was Alone. Wow. A weird first thought to have. 0.2 : Thomas decided to start listing his observations, for posterity. : (1) The whole ‘alone’ thing. : (2) Portals: they led somewhere, he had yet to work out where. : (3) Falling: Thomas was absolutely fantastic at falling. He was almost as good at falling as he was at observing. 0.3 : OK. Interesting. Thomas couldn’t fall past this block. Think, damn it, think. What if there was some kind of inverted fall, some way to ‘jump’. : It worked! Thomas had solved the great inverted fall mystery. 0.4 : A big jump. But Thomas noted that there was no real danger in missing it. The world didn’t want him to fail here, it was pushing him, but gently. 0.5 : This all seemed a little dangerous. The world was not to be trusted. It was unstable, and it seemed to Thomas that it could let him down at any moment. : He was starting to suspect it might even be doing so on purpose. Nah. Paranoia. 0.6 : Thomas wondered whether the portals were actually taking him anywhere. He felt like he was making progress, but there wasn’t really any way to know. He seemed to be moving predominantly up and to the right, which might, or might not, be important. 0.7 : It might have been paranoia again, but Thomas could have sworn the world was becoming more complicated. It always seemed to be one step ahead of his skills. : It had been... designed, just for him. He wondered why. Was the world testing him? No. Too obvious. 0.8 : Something about the boiling, toxic, glowing water intimidated Thomas. He didn't like it, he certainly didn't want to swim in it. : He made another mental note: (4) Water: Not good, to be avoided. 0.9 : The loneliness was getting to Thomas. No amount of observation or obsessive note taking could combat that. 0.10 : Thomas had a new theory. The world was training him. He could feel himself getting smarter. There was a mental list to consider. Over the minutes and seconds since his spontaneous generation, he had become a pretty skilled jumper. : He was evolving. He just wished he had someone to share it with. Scenario 1 - Array 1.1 : Christopher took an immediate and deep dislike to the skinny red rectangle. Who the hell did this "Thomas" think he was. 1.2 : Chris had been doing FINE. He wasn't the highest jumper, but he'd held his own. He'd even been graceful at times. : Well not actually graceful, not technically graceful, probably the wrong word, but, you know, FINE. And then there's that skinny little runt. Leaping about like he owned the place. 1.3 : OK, this was more like it. A glowy white...thing. Only Chris could get to it, which of course made it all the more enticing. What would it do? What new opportunity might this 'switch' open up to him? : Great, great. Another chance for Thomas to jump slightly higher than Chris. How fortunate. Seriously. This made the whole switch pressing thing entirely worthwhile. 1.4 : Was this good? Because on the surface, it did not seem good. Chris was pretty scared. Lil' red seemed fine, happy to be on his merry little adventure. : Chris couldn't shake the feeling that things had taken a significant turn for the worse since Thomas had joined him. : Sure, he'd been able to piggy-back his way to ever so slightly higher platforms, but where had that got him? Well, to ever so slightly higher platforms, which was sort of his point. 1.5 : Chris stared at Thomas with pure hatred. He seemed so very happy at their situation. Friends together, a brave fellowship of quadrilaterals on a quest for greatness. : That would be fine, but it was all the obvious 'observations' that Thomas was doing which grated. Every time they saw something vaguely 'new', Chris would hear a satisfied little 'hmmm' from the vaulting idiot. : He hoped the next portal would split them up. If only for a few levels. 1.6 : John knew. He knew that this was his chance, a moment to shine. This, was game day. 1.7 : This would not do. John needed room to show off his exceptional skills. As it was, he was trapped, on the wrong side of these little dot things. : Where did they come from anyway? 1.8 : Ah. John inhaled the air of open space, and it smelled of AWESOME. : Time to flex those muscles, to put his training to good use. Time to show these little dots how it was done. : John decided to press the switch, to let the little dots catch up with him. John cared for his new allies. : You could tell from the sympathetic expression he'd practiced in the mirror all these years. 1.9 : John was happy to keep helping. He felt it was important to his image that he was seen to help the little guys. : He didn't mind them so much either. The red one, Thomas, had a charming way of applauding every time John jumped. : The angry orange one was less immediately likable, but his unremitting cynicism and tutting amused John. 1.10 : This was interesting. A floating target. This would require coordination, balance and timing. : John was sure the dots would be lost, but he was happy to guide them to triumph. : Maybe that's what the dots were for. They were there to extend John's reach, to make his performance more impressive. John liked the thought. He decided to keep them. Scenario 2 - Origin 2.1 : So this was how Claire would die. She knew it would happen eventually. : She was rubbish at jumping and she moved slowly. She felt a little like her continued existence was breaking some kind of natural order. : The crumbling pillar was a dramatic death, she supposed. : Wait. What? Claire couldn't shake the feeling that she was not, in fact, dead. It was at that moment that Claire realized she had super powers. 2.2 : She'd need a cape. There was no getting around that. You couldn't be a superhero without a cape. Claire didn't want confusion. : If you saw a cape, that made matters clear. You knew what you were dealing with. Claire was all about communication. : And, you know, floating in water. Which was her superpower. 2.3 : Alright! "Fear not my skinny friends, for I am., CLAIRE, and I will save you!" : Claire needed to come up with a superhero name, as soon as possible. 'Claire' was rubbish. 2.4 : Claire arrived just in time. Which was of course the perfect moment for superheroes to arrive. : As the water began to rise, Claire vowed to save this little rectangle, in as many restarts it took. : Claire wondered if Thomas would make a good sidekick. Or was she more of the lone avenger type. She liked that. The sole hero in a world of rectangles and conveniently placed pools of toxic water. 2.5 : The others told Claire that staircases were a bit of a fixture here. Claire wondered why the world made it so difficult. 2.6 : Claire probably needed a nemesis. A villain who would show their true colors at the worst possible moment, hurting all she held dear. : Chris was the most obvious choice. He seemed stroppy enough, and his jump was so pathetic that it conveniently avoided Claire's insecurities. : Yes. Chris. Diabolical Chris. The Feindish Christopher. 2.7 : Wait. Where had Chris gone? Was he off somewhere, plotting Claire's downfall? : If Claire was honest (and she had to be, because she was a superhero) this was a troubling turn of events. : Still. There were reasonably sized bodies of water to cross! 2.8 : Moving platforms over water, eh? Claire's newly heightened senses told her that there were multiple paths across, with various possible configurations of the little posse. : They were doing really well. Claire hoped she could get them all across. John was fully aware he could do this alone. Thomas hoped he'd never have to. 2.9 : Claire was alone. Which was odd. Because she wasn't meant to be alone. She needed to be where there were rectangles to save. : Being the only superhero in a given space kinda defeats the object. : Spikes. That was new. Claire avoided them. She decided they were most likely her kryptonite. And not the rubbish red kryptonite, the proper radioactive green stuff. 2.10 : Wow. Deja vu. : The world was repeating, and this time Thomas was here. Claire felt something had gone wrong. There was a disturbance in the force. : Someone had altered the matrix. The world was reacting to their progress. It was amassing its forces. It was plotting against them. : Claire finally had a nemesis. Section 3 - Associations 3.1 : Laura was pleased this one was behind a wall. Maybe he'd never know what she could do. Maybe, maybe they could just have a conversation, hang out. : As long as he didn't find out what she could do. Which would never happen, so long as they stayed seperate. 3.2 : Laura didn't have time to worry about the ominous Pixel Cloud. It had been following her for some time, and it had kept itself to itself until now. 3.3 : As the square who had shyly introduced himself as 'Chris', bounced atop Laura, she began to worry that he was just using her like all the others had. They'd all bounced too, and then they'd disappeared when her back was turned. : Only the ominous pixel cloud ever remained, looking a little bigger and a little less hungry with each disappearing friend. 3.4 : With every bounce, Laura found herself less and less irritated by Chris. She started to miss him when he wasn't there, on another platform or something. : She'd wonder what he was up to. Was he missing her. He wasn't saying much. 3.5 : Chris was in love. She was perfect. He had to tell her so. : At some point he would definitely tell her. : Probably best to wait for a moment the large ominous pixel cloud wasn't about though. Yeah. Probably best to wait. 3.6 : Chris was massively disappointed to run into the gang again. He had enjoyed the alone time with his new girlfriend. : Was it to early to refer to Laura as his girlfriend? "Only if I say it out loud", he told himself. He didn't want to scare her off. 3.7 : The others seemed suspicious of Laura, and the eager looking pixel cloud of death which seemed to be watching her. Sure, they'd use her inherent bounciness to reach slightly higher jump points, bt they wouldn't strike up a conversation with her. Chris found them rude. : Rude and always there. 3.8 : The others wouldn't drop it. "Who's that cloud guy?" "Why is he following us?" "What's that rumbling hungry sound he keeps making?" "Chris, could we just leave Laura behind?" : Rude. 3.9 : Laura liked her new gang. She liked Chris. She liked having friends. These ones seemed to be sticking around too. Not like those losers from before. 3.10 : The pixel cloud was getting closer, it was spending more and more time hovering around. Laura could tell it was making the others uncomfortable. Scenario 4 - Purge 4.1 : Thomas did not like the cloud. He'd long since stopped listing his observations, but he instinctively observed that this 'thing' was bad. : And he'd been right about the water. 4.2 : Thomas could tell Chris was in love and that was fantastic and everything, but that didn't mean they could let the doom cloud keep following them. Thomas was going to put his foot down, once they got to the next level. 4.3 : Chris...missed Thomas. Wow. Did not see that coming. He felt a little guilty too. Without his love for Laura, and subsequent reunion with the guys, Thomas would probably still be with them. 4.4 : Chris wondered if Thomas was still alive somewhere. : He was't going to go looking for him. But he did wonder and that showed character. : Probably. 4.5 : Maybe the other hadn't abandoned Laura all that time ago. It began to dawn on her that she was not the tragic victim she had always assumed. 4.6 : Laura had been the bait. She had a hunch that she wasn't needed anymore. 4.7 : John looked at Claire. It was just them now. She muttered something her breath about a vow of vengence. He didn't see the point. Fighting that thing seemed to be a pretty futile idea. 4.8 : As they struggled to get to the next portal, John hoped that he would be the next to get eaten. He didn't want to be alone. 4.9 : For the first time in a while John didn't have an audience. : He was alone. Leaping from black square to black square didn't seem nearly as exciting now. It just seemed empty. 4.10 : John gulped. He knew he'd never escape. He knew it was waiting for him. He decided to jump the massive scary gaps, for old time's sake. Scenario 5 - Invert 5.1 : James had always been different. And not different in that kooky "OMG, you've totally got to meet my mate James, he is literally insane!" kind of way. 5.2 : He'd not seen anyone else in a long time. Not since getting eaten by that cloudy, pixely thing. He'd turned up here, in some kind of cage. : He'd gotten out, but it had taken a long time. 5.3 : James liked being alone. No one to insult him, or question his unique disregard for Newtonian Laws. "Hey Jimmy, where are you going? UP!!!!??!". : Idiots. 5.4 : The little red guy looked confused. His cage was a lot smaller than James' had been. James decided to find a way to help. Maybe they would be friends. 5.5 : Thomas had no idea why he was here. One minute he was with his friends, the next he was being freed from a cage by a green guy with a nervous laugh. He knew he had to get back to them. 5.6 : His turquoise hero seemed uncomfortable. Thomas imagined he would feel the same way if he fell upwards all the time. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought James didn't want to meet everyone. 5.7 : Thomas wondered why the cloud thing had brought them both here. : This was working! James and Thomas, working together, could get anywhere. James didn't seem to understand the immense ability he possessed. 5.8 : James grudgingly helped Thomas to each portal. He knew that eventually they'd find the others, and then he'd go back to being the weird one again. He decided to enjoy the time they had left. 5.9 : Why did Thomas even want to spend time with James? Was he not repulsed by his weird colour. : Did he not care about his... inversions. 5.10 : James was having fun. For the time being. Scenario 6 - Itterate 6.1 : Sarah leaned her wizened head back and laughed. Ha! The quadrilaterals were apparently after some friends of theirs. How petty an adventure. 6.2 : She spoke, in terms she could only hope they'd understand, of the fountain of wisdom. The channel through which all data flowed. 6.3 : Sarah could leap in the very air itself. She was like an eagle. Or a flea. : More, more like an eagle. She had vowed long ago that she would know this world, that she would know what this world was. That she, Sarah, would know how to escape it. 6.4 : The red one, who spoke wisely for a lesser, offered Sarah their help; so long as she then helped them save their friends. : He said that he too had wondered of the secrets of this world, and would quite like a go on the wisdom fountain if that was OK. : Sarah marveled at his foolishness, but accepted his help. 6.5 : Sarah wondered at the possibilities of the outer world. She had heard legends of a third dimension. Perhaps she'd encounter one of those curves the blind square had spoken of. 6.6 : A single jump each? These were truly weak creatures. They possessed heart though. Sarah might consider taking them with her. If they were up to it. Which they were probably not. 6.7 : They were close. Sarah sensed the presence of the fountain. Just one more portal to go, and then she would have the knowledge. 6.8 : Thomas looked at the glowing beam. That list he'd been writing seemed pretty petty now. This, this was all knowledge, all of it, right in front of him. : He was sorry Sarah couldn't step into it too. He could tell she felt the same way. From the shouting. And the screaming. 6.9 : Thomas was connected to the internet for 12 seconds. And he had seen everything. He had seen the cats who couldn't spell, he had heard of the arrow through the knee. He felt that there was a thing called cake, but that it was a lie. 6.10 : Thomas knew where they were. He knew what they had to do. He hoped the others would understand. They were just beyond the next portal. Scenario 7 - Design 7.1 : Thomas knew they couldn't escape. They had been trapped permanently from the moment the cloud ate them. He explained this to the others, it was impossible to gauge their reaction. After all, they were just rectangles. 7.2 : Sarah was deflated. She had not even gotten close to the fountain. She could tell from the earnest expression on Thomas that the information it had imparted was clearly important. : Sarah knew her destiny was now to support him. 7.3 : Claire could not accept that this had all been futile. She was a superhero. There had to be a way. Not for her to get out, Red had been pretty clear on that. : But there must be thousands of other AIs up there, unaware of their situation. Was there a way to help them? 7.4 : Thomas led his friends to the creation matrix, the system which generated the worlds up above. He had a plan. They were going to redesign the world. : That's what the humans did, they change the world to suit them. Why couldn't they do the same? 7.5 : Chris was skeptical. He knew his abilities would be of no use to anyone. But Laura smiled at him, and immediately, he knew he had to do everything he could to help them get there. 7.6 : Laura had been born special. She understood that now She was created to help others. If her bounce could be passed on, then this would all have been worthwhile. 7.7 : Thomas liked the idea of being an architect. He wanted to modify the world to help others. He was sick of these contrived spaces, these intentionally obtuse paths and puzzles . : He'd do things differently. He'd empower the AIs above. 7.8 : John's massive jumps were dwarfed by Sarah, for the first time in his life he felt humbled. Not as good as someone else. He realized that he wanted to make every AI up there feel as heroic as he had. : He liked the sound of that. 7.9 : James still felt weird, but he realized now that everyone else was too. They were a crew of weirdos. Weirdness that would save all the normals up above. The other AIs would escape and it would all be down to seven rectangles with very different relationships to gravity. 7.10 : Thomas knew he'd never meet Nathan Fillion, or a Transformer. He'd never get to visit Gotham City or eat at Mooby's. It didn't matter. If he and his friends jumped into the creation matrix, they could give everyone else in the simulation a chance to. Scenario 8 - Generation 8.1 : Grey felt something change beneath his feet. Something had shifted. The shape in front of him hinted at a possibility. : Wow. He couldn't do that before. 8.2 : Jo was happy. They'd settled here. They'd not seen another AI for many cycles, and she liked it that way. : She saw Sam leap into the shifter with fear. 8.3 : Grey couldn't work it out. Why was the world letting him do this. It was dumb. It was awesome, obviously, but why? : They seemed to be leading him up. Up and to the right. 8.4 : Jo wished Sam would stop. This was just like the time with the pixel clouds. They hadn't seen any for a while. He was always running off like this. : Sam was sorry, and he tried to calm Jo down. He couldn't explain why he felt this way. He just knew that there was somewhere else he should be. 8.5 : Paul felt it. There was a whisper to the shifters. : They had not occurred randomly. They had been created. 8.6 : Grey listened to the old man. The shifters had been placed in the world by the Architects - AIs who sacrificed themselves to fuel their escape. : There was an outer world, a world beyond the confines of their universe. : Up. And to the right. 8.7 : Jo was coming to like her new found abilities. Maybe it was a good thing after all. : It was getting a bit chilly, though. 8.8 : Grey had left the old man behind. He had to get to this exit. He had to be the one to get out. A whole world to himself. : He had to get there before anyone else did. 8.9 : Paul cursed Grey. He should never have told him. He had to get to the other AIs of the world, warn them about Grey. : Stop him. 8.10 : Jo and Sam saw Grey across the gap. He waved them over. He seemed, well, nice. They helped him to the next portal. Scenario 9 - Y+1, X+1 9.1 : Team Jump had been together for a long time. They were a machine, a well oiled machine. They could jump like nobody's business. : They thought as one. They acted as one. 9.2 : Paul bowed before the Team, he begged them to help. He told them of the outer world. Of the cats who couldn't spell. Of the liar, Grey. : "Up, and to the right!" they answered in unison. 9.3 : Grey, Jo and Sam continued moving upwards. They had to make it. : Grey had told the couple he was looking for a lost friend. He had made something up about being alone, on a quest for lost allies. They had eaten it up. 9.4 : The team, along with their spiritual leader Paul, worked their way right. : Team Jump were proud of their progress. They obliterated all challenges in their path. They'd heard of 'individuals' getting stuck on staircases or stepping stones. : This did not happen to Team Jump. 9.5 : Grey could tell they were nearing the exit portal. He smiled to himself, trying to work out the easiest way of dispensing with his allies when the time came. 9.6 : Team Jump saw the others beyond the wall. They were doing well. Paul tried to shout a warning, but they couldn't hear him. Grey counted five in Team Jump. He could take them. 9.7 : Sam was worried at how silent Grey had become. He wasn't responding to Jo's questions, or acknowledging them at all. : Were they really trying to save his friends? 9.8 : Paul knew the path ahead wasn't safe. He told the Team to wait, that he'd come get them when it was secure. : Grey had to be stopped. Whatever the cost. 9.9 : The pixel cloud had been separated from its allies for some time. She had not heard the order to retreat. She was shocked by the appearance of the four aberrations below. : The old one seemed to be leading the liar to an outcropping. It was within her reach. She could remove them both. : The couple could wait. They weren't going anywhere. 9.10 : Jo and Sam ran. They had no idea where these final portals would lead, but it had to be better than this. : They leapt. Scenario 10 - Target 10.1 : Benjamin and his father climbed between the rocks. If they moved fast enough, they could probably see the fountain before darkness fell. Benjamin had brought sandwiches especially. : They had no crusts, Benjamin's father insisted on that. They were meticulously crafted, packed away in neat boxes. : For as many cycles as he could remember, Benjamin had made the climb with his father. Every time the glow felt closer, more tangible. : Benjamin hoped that one day, he'd be able to reach out and touch it. 1,831 cycles later 10.2 : Benjamin ran. His father had sent word that it was ready. That it was actually done. : There had been a few misfires. Benjamin had seen the rectangle who'd tested Mark 26. More of a trapezium now. 10.3 : The jet pack was glorious. : Benjamin's father motioned to the switches he'd made, told him to fly to them. Slowly, though. : Benjamin ignored him of course, hitting the sequence as quickly as possible. He was dying to test this out properly. To fly to the fountain. 10.4 : Just a quick flight up to the fountain. Benjamin was sure his father wouldn't mind. The locked doors were a... precaution. The spike walls; a friendly reminder to be aware of his surroundings. : That combination lock on the jet pack had, after all, been exceptionally easy to guess. 10.5 : Anna was done. : The fountain had sounded like a great idea when she started. An adventure. More importantly, it was an adventure she could have alone. : But she hadn't been alone, and they had seen her. 10.6 : Benjamin was getting good at this. He could fly. It was important to stay focused though, he had a fountain to get to. : Get to the fountain. Touch it. Get home for dinner. His father wouldn't even notice he'd gone anywhere. 10.7 : The rectangle seemed remarkably unimpressed by Benjamin's jet pack. She didn't even ask about it. She just kept looking up, and muttering about clouds. : Initially slighted, Benjamin decided that this was a passing disinterest, and she'd come around eventually. 10.8 : Anna tried to talk the obnoxiously single minded square out of his plan. : She should have left him. Taken the next portal home and forgotten about that big, spluttering machine he kept motioning at heroically. 10.9 : They were halfway to the fountain. It occurred to Benjamin that his father would have become aware of his absence by now. : Benjamin hoped that he'd be forgiven. You know, 'the folly of youth', : Father had worked so hard on the jet pack. 10.10 : Anna tried again. : She told Benjamin about the blinding light of the fountain, of the clouds which had defended it. She begged him not to carry on. : He laughed it off. He wasn't afraid of clouds, however pixelated they were. He could fly above them, or swoop to avoid them. : He scared her. Scenario 11 - Consequence 11.1 : Sarah was awed by the square. : Its voice boomed, raised above the roar of the jet pack. : "You don't happen to have any sandwiches, do you?" 11.2 : Benjamin liked the little purple fan girl. She was kind of cute, and she seemed really impressed with his jet pack. : This. This was how Anna should have been looking at him all this time. But no. She was pure naysaying. She didn't understand the dream he had, the importance of what he was doing. : That double jump was cool too. 11.3 : The fountain of knowledge sounded fantastic. Benjamin hadn't told her what it was really, she suspected he didn't know. : He ploughed off ahead, while she jumped behind him, helping the increasingly resigned Anna. Sarah suspected Anna had no faith in Benjamin. She was... scared. Ha! She had not the faith to believe in their leader. : Sarah found herself thinking more, epically. She suspected it was Benjamin's heroism. Every hero needed a faithful disciple. Maybe that was her. : It definitely wasn't Anna. 11.4 : Anna was definitely done this time. She had tried. The self aggrandising square and the purple orator were never going to listen. : She locked the door behind herself. She would stay here, where it was safe. She could wait a few cycles. Who knew, maybe this would be enough. She was done with adventure. : And she had no idea what sandwiches even were. 11.5 : Sarah laughed, for she had no fear now. The doubter, Anna, had hidden away. : Benjamin carried her even higher, he swore the fountain was close, that soon she would see him touch it. : He said it would reveal great things. She hoped he might share some of them with her. 11.6 : The world surrounding the fountain was brighter than the rest, light seemed to engulf the space around it, pouring into the chambers. : Benjamin was close, the jet pack was working. : Benjamin thought of his father again. He thought about how proud the big square would be of what he'd accomplished. 11.7 : Sarah knew she could not follow Benjamin any further. She would wait here. He would return soon enough, and he would tell her everything. : The lights grew even brighter, and with tears in his eyes, Benjamin ascended. 11.8 : It shone before him, its light reverberating off the walls percussively. It was awesome. It was everything he had hoped. : Sandwiches didn't matter anymore. : Cute purple fan girls didn't matter anymore. : There was only Benjamin and the fountain. : The light engulfed Benjamin. He was... He couldn't... 11.9 : Benjamin was blind. : He had seen shadows, bright lights, data in innumerable and unimaginable combinations. And then it had gone. He wasn't ready. : He sat. There was nothing else to do. He'd try and find his way home tomorrow. 11.10 : Sarah fell. Benjamin was stuck up there, she had no idea if she'd ever see him again. : The fountain had destroyed everything, it had unleashed the clouds, it had blinded Benjamin. : Sarah swore she would see it again. She'd get back to it. She would know what it was, and what it contained. Category:Game Mechanics Category:Characters Category:Scenarios Category:Speaker